The Collinsport Chronicles X: Trial by Fire
by Maryland Rose
Summary: There is one chance for Maggie to undo the damage Kira inflicted on her mind. But that means for Barnabas to confront his own demons. Can he do it?
1. Chapter 1

Kira is dead, and the town is returnting to normal. But Maggie has not recovered yet. And Chris' bitterness is growing to a dangerous point.

* * *

TRIAL BY FIRE

Chapter 1

Maggie tossed in her bed, extending her hands as if trying to catch something that eluded her.

In her dream, a mist had come between her and Barnabas. He was there, she knew. But she couldn't find him.

Somewhere, he waited for her. Her gun had been taken away, she had been thrown into a strange place with no hope of return,

But she would kill him yet.

The mist parted, a little bit. Enough to show her a figure standing over some sort of steps...

The spiral staircase and the golden eagles...she knew that the golden eagles would be there.

The eagles came alive and flew circling her head. They knew that there would be a kill and they waited for their meat.

They would feed on Barnabas' flesh...

She moved towards the figure in the stone steps.

Then the mists parted and she saw the woman's face...

* * *

"What do you mean, you cannot come tonight? Iris asked Barnabas on the phone. "I was waiting for you all week."

"I am sorry. Really am. But Amy needs me.."

"Can't you find some time for me? Or do I have to be committed to Wyncliffe before I notice that I exist?"

"Julia needs me, too."

"Julia! Always Julia!" Iris knew that she sounded hateful, but could not help herself. "what is the hold she has over you?"

"I owe her too much and I will never to pay her back. Surely I can give her a bit of my time now."

* * *

"When will Dr. Hoffman start treating her?" Roxanne asked Sabrina impatiently.

"She will tell me when she's ready."

"She'd better hurry, or before you know it, your boss will be beyond help."

"Can't you hold her for a little longer?:"

"I am losing control over her. She's beginning to hate me, now."

"Hate?"

"I can feel it here." Roxanne tapped her forehead "And it grows stronger every day. I think that I hit on some old wound of hers, and somehow she transferred the blame to me."

"For how much longer do you think you can hold her?"

"I don't care to make guesses. The sooner you get her to Dr. Hoffman, the better."

"If you want out of the deal, say so."

"I want to see this through."

"Do you?" Sabrina lifted her eyebrows. "Next thing you'll tell me you got ethics."

"Why shouldn't I have them?"

Sabrina shrugged. "A junkie and a blackmailer."

"I wasn't always like this."

"Are you going to blame your curse on it?"

"No. I got quite well for years without drugs or need to blackmail anybody for pocket money."

"As far as you remember. You admitted that you got huge gaps in your memory."

"I am getting it back. And what nothing of what I am getting is something of which I should be ashamed."

"What do you recall?"

"Working on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was one of the few people who knew what I was and she didn't care. The fugitives crossed the border and went on to new lives, It was well worth the blood I took during the trip."

"Is that how you sustained yourself?"

"Yes. There were always people who needed certain kinds of help, and couldn't pay for it in money, so I came in."

"What kind of help did you give?"

"Nothing illegal by the laws we have now. Helping distribute birth control information and devices provided by Margaret Sanger. Helping the IWW and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn... Do you know that I met Joe Hill? You know him now only for the song, but I find him most attractive... I helped out with a lot of women like Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Ida Tarbell... and my help came with a price, which everybody seemed happy to pay."

"You were quite the humanitarian. So how come?

"How come I ended up a junkie?" Roxanne shrugged "Stalin, I guess."

"Stalin?"

"You must have heard of him. The bright hope of the future. Russia, the land of milk and honey where they were building a Paradise on Earth. I believed that, along with the other fellow travelers... I wanted to believe it. I wasn't the only one, which does not excuse anything... We lied to ourselves until we could not do it anymore...And the Beat generation was there, ready to accept the disillusioned ones, offering drugs to that se could like to ourselves a bit more...It wasn't difficult to get hooked then. And even when I stopped lying to myself as to what was going on in Russia, I still used... Then it was Sebastian, and we hit it off, and we kicked the habit together... though there are gaps there. So I got off it. I got my self-respect back, not all of it, but enough. And when this is done, I hope to get all of it back."

* * *

It was a heavy sheep and difficult to drag away. Chris pulled at it steadily, pausing only to lick the blood that continued to drip from the torn throat.

The fat felt good to chew, too and the next time he stopped, he tore off a big chunk of it and ate it.

With his mouth busy, he could not drag the sheep, so he shifted shape.

It was much better this way. He could carry the sheep on his shoulder, and eat the still warm flesh at the same time.

He wondered why he bothered to cook his meat when it tasted so good raw.

* * *

"Well, sheriff" Derek stood coldly in front of George's desk "what do you plan to do about it?"

"I told you I was sorry."

"The point is that my civil rights have been violated and that I expect an official apology."

"Are you crazy?"

"You put me under house arrest, didn't you? Without a trial. If that isn't a flagrant abuse of authority.

George sighed "Is it money you want? Or is it just that you cannot stop being a jailhouse lawyer?"

"No habeas corpus. Refusal to let me put up bail. What about the old presumed innocent until found guilty? I can be sent to prison, or house arrest for that matter, only after a proper sentence has been passed in a court of law. Not at the whim of some petty tyrant in charge of law and order."

"You are not getting any money from me."

"I want you to acknowledge, in print, that you exceeded your authority."

George narrowed his eyes. "I will make a deal with you. I'll apologize on your terms if you let me charge you with running crooked games."

"You wouldn't!"

"I would."

Derek dropped on a chair, defeated. "You cannot get away with it. You cannot go on doing these things just because you got a badge."

* * *

"How is the work doing?" Joe asked Tammy.

"Dull, dull, dull" Tammy sighed. "Some people are too dumb to be embezzlers, the way they do not cover their tracks."

"I imagine that after the excitement with Kira, everything else is a letdown.

"Excitement?" Tammy shuddered. "I don't think of it as excitement. Not when I think of Buffy..."

"It was not your fault."

"She died because of me. She was trying to protect me. In a way, I killed her."

"No. You didn't train those kids to kill. Kira did."

"I should have been more careful."

"With somebody like Kira, it is difficult to know what being careful means. You did an excellent job of stopping her."

"Not good enough." For one second she saw Buffy's face again. "You also did a good job" she changed conversation before she started crying.

"That was luck. I had been hanging around the art colony when I was courting Maggie, so I recognized Roger's contraption."

"Still, it was a good job."

They were close now, their faces approaching each other's

"Did anyone tell you that you are beautiful when you take off your glasses?" Joe said jokingly.

"The do, all the time."

Joe kissed her, tentatively.

* * *

"Do you come to collect on your favor" Frank asked Megan.

"No, not yet. I came to see how your are doing."

"Getting accustomed to my new surroundings."

"Good. Look, don't be in a hurry to pay back the favor."

"Why not?"

"Because it was not a small favor, and I tend to hoard those. I may need a big favor later on, and I don't want to have yours squandered in a lot of little favors."

* * *

Elsa got up from the bed as she saw the dark shape out of the window.

"I got your message" Barnabas said as he materialized inside the room. "so I came."

"You are not mad at me anymore?"

"You know what you did wrong, don't you?"

"Yes. I got you in trouble with everybody."

"That wasn't the problem. That was just bad luck. What you did wrong was sticking me with needles."

"But you weren't hurting."

"Elsa, never assume that other people don't feel pain. Nor animals, either. I didn't feel pain, then, but my fingers hurt when I woke up."

Elsa hung her head and Barnabas decided to cut short the lecture. "Why did you call me with such urgency?"

"Missy is going to have kittens. Mom's talking of drowning them."

"It is a regrettable necessity."

"But I don't want her to1"

"Do you think you could find homes for them?"

Elsa looked at him. "Do you want a kitten?"

"Me?"

"You must have a terrible problem with rats and mice. You need a good mouser.

Barnabas thought about it. Yes, he needed some sort of pest control.

"All right I'll tell your mother that I'll take the whole litter if she promises to spay Missy afterwards."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

George parked his car next to Chris Jennings' coop.

"Official business or just social?"

"Official."

"Are you coming to arrest me?"

"You done anything lately I should arrest you for?"

"I confess" Chris extended his arms mockingly "this operation is actually a front. The Mob uses this place as a drop for heroin."

There was something forced about Chris'' banter, but Gorge was tired from a full day's work and missed it. "I always suspected it." Then added more soberly. "We got another pack of stray dogs."

"Another?" Chris tensed.

"There have been coops raided and sheep killed around this area. You haven't seen anything?"

"No. I have been lucky up to now. Or maybe my scent drives them away"

"Well, just keep an eye on things. And if you see any strange dog, report it."

* * *

Barnabas studied the man in front of him, astonished to see him there.

"Are you sure you want to talk to me?" he said as gently as he could.

"You find that surprising?" the man smiled sadly "I guess it's been a while since you had any dealings with the clergy."

"Relationships between the clergy and myself haven't been marked by cordiality, to put it mildly."

"I imagine that my ancestors gave you a lot of trouble." The Reverend Anselm Trask said.

"They did" Barnabas admitted (and he had given them trouble, too..)

"And you are probably expecting the same from me."

Barnabas thought about it. "None of them would have gone on Freedom Rides as you did. Also my behavior has improved a lot, which makes it easier for you to tolerate me."

"Yes. I tolerated you." Trask sighed. "but somehow it doesn't seem enough. I was at the town meeting. The things you said to them... I should have said them long ago. Instead I let Quentin get away with.. with what he did."

'You did what you thought best."

"No! I knew I had to stand up to Quentin and expose the ways he was distorting Christianity.

A smile could not help forming on Barnabas' lips as he remembered Anselm's ancestors. They certainly had distorted Christianity in more than one way. Odd to find a Trask fighting on the other side.

"But then." Trask continued "it was you he was going after, and did I know about you?"

"You had no reason to trust me." Barnabas admitted.

"I should have tried to find out! It wasn't that difficult. I had to know you for who really are!"

"Who I really am?" Barnabas could not keep irony out of his voice.

"Somebody who, after being run out of town will come back to plead for the civil rights of those who ran him off. Somebody who will willingly let himself be killed to buy other people's safety." Anselm saw the expression that came Barnabas' face. "Phillip told me that. He's in my congregation."

"Phillip told you...I asked him not to, but I guess that your being a clergyman makes it all right."

He was disturbed by the expression in Anselm's eyes. Nervously his fingers sought the string collection he always carried with him. He wondered again _why_ Woodard would have asked him such a thing as a price for helping Julia. There really wasn't much sense in telling your murderer that things would be all right if only he started saving string.

"I am also someone who will give knitting needles to a potentially suicidal patient, without bothering to check whether that is a good idea or not. I am also someone who did his best to hurt Amy Jennings when she was sick.

"But.."

"No, I am not a devil. But that does not make me automatically a saint, either. I make mistakes. Too many. Reverend. I have learned to accept it as I have accepted the...the other. But I still don't like it.

* * *

Phillip finished his number and waited for the audience's applause. It was there, but it was thin compared to what you could get in the summer...

More people in summer, too. The tourists were now gone, and the locals were rather stingy with their money, as it had to carry them through the winter months.

Megan was in the back, clapping.

She wouldn't let him practice. And now she was paying good money to hear him play.

It was time he took a breather. He went to the bar, where the bartender handed him a beer.

"Nice going" Iris said next to him.

"You here?: he turned towards her. "I thought you'd be with Barnabas."

"He couldn't make it tonight, either. He's too busy. At least, that's what he says."

"Julia again." Phillip said sympathetically."

"The crisis of the week. Well, we owe nothing to each other. He leads his life and I lead mine. Care to buy me a drink?"

Phillip led her to a table. "You are jealous of Julia, aren't you?"

"He spends more time with her than with me."

"And he doesn't ask your opinion so much, either."

Iris shrugged "I might as well admit that it is over."

"Not yet. But...Remember what you told me? That you bossed him around because Julia had taught him that he needed that kind of treatment? Well, now he's getting it from Julia herself."

"I see" she sipped at her drink "I was just a second hand Julia to him. Just as Maggie was a second-hand Josette."

* * *

"Is it true that you and Joe are sleeping together?"

Tammy looked at Megan with hostility. "Does that bother you?"

"To be frank, yes."

"The miscegenation bother you?"

"It bothers me what you could be doing to Joe."

"I am good enough to work for you, but not good enough to take Joe to bed?"

"How long is it since you stopped putting nuts on his desk?"

"Why bring it up?"

"Joe is a former mental patient. And he's as sensitive about it as you are about race. The two of you together is like two porcupines making love. If you can pull it off, fine. But remember that Joe could be badly hurt by it."

"Nothing will happen?

"I hope so. I need both of you."

* * *

"Are you ready for the opening?" Xavier could not contain his impatience "You know that Representative Evans will be coming for it."

"I am ready, don't you worry. But there is something else I wanted to talk to you about" Redwolf said.

"What is it?"

"Barnabas has been getting too chummy with Old Munsungan for my taste."

"So much the better. This way the old man will give us not trouble."

"It is not that simple. Before you know it, he might try to start a power squeeze against me. He's itching for it."

"I don't see why that should be a problem to me."

"You don't see? How would you like to have business dealings with Khomeini?"

"Khomeini?"

"Old Munsungan is a regular ayatollah when it comes to white man's ways, white man's culture, and white man's anything. If you think that I make too many demands, one month of trying to satisfy him will make me appreciate me, If you have not been driven to suicide first."

"I see."

"But with your help I can keep him from becoming a nuisance."

"My help?"

"Well, if you were to grant me another business to add to the complex that would help."

"Another one? " Xavier was sarcastic"

"Barnabas all but promised it to me. Using traditional basket weaving technique for furniture."

"And how come Barnabas never told me about it?"

"He nearly got killed shortly afterwards., so it sort of slipped his mind."

* * *

...Barnabas was watching her, smiling cruelly.

"It is not use, Maggie."

"No!" she shouted :"Not yet!"

...Something was in her hand...a gun...

The laughter was all around her. She was back on the spiral staircase...

...She was now on a railing, holding a gun...

People moved down there, small as ants.

She knew that Barnabas was one of them.'

...But which one? Which one was he?

...No matter. Shoot them. Shoot them all...

She pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

She had to make the thing work! Had to kill Barnabas!

...but there was not trigger...

Roxanne stood frozen, by the door. Maggie had walked in her sleep and now stood by the window, holding the broom like a gun.

She knew that it was dangerous to waken a sleepwalker, but...

Maggie made again the motion of pulling the trigger, and this time an ugly smile crossed Maggie's face.

"Come back to bed, Maggie" Roxanne prodded her gently.

Maggie froze at her touch.

"Come back to bed. It is all a bad dream."

Maggie turned towards Roxanne, tried to look through her numbed eyes.

...Barnabas was there, laughing...

"No!" she lunged at Roxanne, clawed at her face, digging her fingernails deep into her face, barely missing the eyes.

"Maggie..." Roxanne tried to hold her off, to control her, in spite of the pain.

As Maggie's fingernails kept digging, she began to kick and hiss.

Roxanne turned herself into a bad and flew into a corner of the room.

"Where are you now?" Maggie cried, her nostrils flaring

Roxanne knew that she could not leave her like that. But she couldn't touch her again.

Frantically she searched in her mind for the control she was supposed to have over Maggie.

She strained at it, fearful of the results.

Somehow, Maggie seemed to relax.

...Go back to bed.

Maggie was fighting it. If she proved to be the stronger..

If Maggie was the stronger, she would have to bite her again. Or rather try and be clawed for it.

Roxanne put all her strength to bear on Maggie's mind.

Maggie finally relaxes and walked back to her bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Get her back to Julia Hoffman!" Roxanne yelled at a half-asleep Sabrina.

"I am. She is going for the opening of the Davenport Center."

"Get her there _now_!" Roxanne shook Sabrina roughly "I have almost no control over her now."

Sabrina looked at Roxanne and saw the faint red lines on her cheek. Roxanne healed quickly, so the wound was recent, very recent...

"She did that?" she asked pointing at it.

"What do you think? She's berserk."

"Maybe if you handled her differently..."

"Maybe she just kills somebody and gets arrested for it."

"She won't"

"Do you know what she was doing? She was walking in her sleep and holding a broom like a gun, doing as if she was shooting passerbys from the window."

Sabrina bit her lip. The implication was unmistakable.

"Can you bite her again?"

"I am not getting near those fingernails of her again. If I get close she attacks me."

"How much control over her you still have?"

"Very little."

Sabrina thought about it. "I guess I'll have to keep her doped up until I can take her safely to Julia. Use whatever power you have over her to make sure she takes her pills."

* * *

Has he lost the men? He could still hear them behind him, with the barking dogs pointing the way.

They had been waiting for him, Chris realized, he should have foreseen it. They wanted to catch whatever it was that was killing their stock.

And they were too many of them to try to fight.

So he ran.

And the dogs pursuing him ran, too.

His only chance was to make them lose his scent.

He dove into the water as noiselessly as he could and paddled away. He dove, and deep down he changed shape. He swam a while underwater and broke the surface to breathe. No one there. Good. he got to shore and walked away.

Let them pursue a dog-wolf-coyote that was nowhere to be found.

It was cold, in his wet clothes, but he endured it. He went into the bushes, and only after a reasonable distance, he changed shape again for warmth, and trotted home.

* * *

Anselm Trask sipped the cup of tea that Julia offered him.

"Do you think that he would reconsider coming to our discussion group?"

"Do you want my professional opinion?"

"Professional?"

"Well, he was my patient for a long time. And I have learned the way his mind works."

Anselm bent eagerly forward. "And what do you think?"

Julia's eyes narrowed "Why do you want this? What makes him special to you?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because it will make a difference whether you can get him or not."

"I don't follow you."

"Are you really interested in what he has to say? Or is this just another of your church projects?"

"Church projects?"

"Be kind to a vampire week." Julia said bluntly.

Anselm's face reddened "I never..."

"Maybe he misunderstood. He can be somewhat sensitive about it."

"I thought he'd appreciate it."

"Four, five years ago, maybe. But now, he can recognize when he is being patronized, and he does not like it at all. It is better than being lynched, but that's all you can say for it." Julia smiled good humouredly. "If there is patronizing to be done, he prefers to be the one doing it."

"I honestly never meant to patronize him. It was just that I was so impressed with what he had done that I just had to talk to him. Tell me how many people would have done what he did at the town meeting?"

"I know that I wouldn't have done it. Would you?"

"I want to think that I would have, but I know better. I hated Quentin and when people started following him and got in trouble because of him, I was glad. I wanted them to suffer. Then the comes... and makes me ashamed because he does what I should have done.".

"Well, he does tend to have that effect on people."

* * *

Tammy shivered. It was not just the cold. It was Buffy.

Joe had advised her to forget it. So did Megan. No one blamed her for Buffy's death.

But she knew that she was guilty.

She should have been more careful. She should have suspected the children.

But who could suspect children of murder?

Buffy was so warm, so friendly. So trusting...

"I used her" Tammy thought "and she died trying to save me."

Kira had to be stopped. But why should Buffy pay the price for it?

Already people were beginning to forget her. Even her husband...her name had been removed from the phone book...

She felt herself being pulled to the cemetery. Somebody had to visit Buffy's grave.

* * *

"How are you and Willie doing now?"

"Getting back on our feet" Louella said as she sat down next to Barnabas "we are a lot closer to each other now. We talk, share things...All the things we should have talked about long ago, but never got around to, because we were too busy arguing about you."

"I shouldn't have hung around him so much."

"No. I should have tried getting to know you better. After all, you are a very nice person."

"Don't exaggerate please."

The hand he held was becoming rigid. He understood why. She knew what would happen as soon as they stopped talking. She dreaded it not longer, but still wasn't comfortable with it."

He brushed the side of her neck with his fingers.

"Are you pregnant?" he asked suddenly.

"No. Not yet." she said quickly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Why?"

"When you get pregnant I will not do this anymore until the kid is born."

"Why? What would happen if you did?"

"I don't know, and I don't intend to find out."

* * *

"David" Julia watched as David relaxed on the couch "Let's go back."

"Going back..." David echoed.

"Remember the first time you used drugs?"

David twitched "Must no use drugs." he said, grabbing his wrist.

Julia cursed Barnabas under her breath. Surely there must be another way to keep David clean.

"All right, you are not going to use it."

David relaxed again.

"Just look at it. It is a powder, isn't it?""

"The powder..." David's body tensed up, his nostrils flaring.

"Relax, Keep looking at it, but relax."

"It is a small mound, very white...so beautiful.." he almost wailed at those last words.

"What else is there?"

"A spoon. They say I will need it."

"No needles?"

"No. We are going to snort it... No! No! Must not!"

"Relax, you will not do it. I want you to look but don't touch. Can you do that?"

"Yes. I can do that."

"You are there, looking a the powder. What do you see?"

"I am...looking at it."

"You see yourself?"

"I see the powder."

"Are you there?"

"Yes. Should not..."

David was tensing again, but Julia, caught in the description failed to see it."

"Are you thinking something?"

"Thinking..."

"You are looking at it. You think that you want to use it"

"No!" David grabbed his wrist again.

"Think of how beautiful it looks, how white. Look at it again. What are you thinking?"

"Dope..." he tightened his hand over his wrist. "must not...cannot..."

"But you want to."

"Must not..."

"But you still want it"

"No! Must not want it."

"Why are you looking at the powder? What do you expect to find there?"

David grunted and tossed his head.

"You see the powder. But you see something else in the powder. You are trying to see something in the powder."

"No...not dope...must not want dope.."

"Relax, David, relax" Julia roses from her chair and went to David's side 'Just keep looking at the powder. Wait until the images begin to form."

David gave off a low grunt tightening his fists.

"Open your hands, David."

"Do you see the powder?"

"Yes."

"Look at it. Look inside it. There is something inside it, isn't there?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"Can't see it. Too fuzzy."

"It is becoming clearer"

"It isn't! " David snarled impatiently.

"Look harder."

"No...no.." David tossed his head "I cannot see...I cannot see...I cannot see her..."

"Her? Do you see a woman in the powder?"

David grunted, pushing himself up with his arms.

"Do you recognize her? Is she the reason why you want to use the powder?"

"No!" David tenses, grabbing his wrist again "I don't want to use it!"

"Who is the woman?"

"Keep away from me!" David shouted, sitting up.

"Relax, David"

David's body shook. He fell off the couch into the floor where he immediately curled himself into a fetal position while moaning.

Hair began sprouting on him.

It took Julia five seconds to reach the door.

Five more minutes until the transformation was complete. If she couldn't stop it in time...

It wasn't that big a distance to the spot where Barnabas had left the cane before he had gone to Collinsport. He had said that she should keep it with her when she was treating David. She hadn't thought it necessary then.

She wondered if she would make it in time. If David had jumped out of the window...

He hadn't. The noise that came from her office was reassuring in that respect. Hoping that David would not jump on her, she opened the door.

He was crouching in the corner, holding something between his paws.

Her new coat! Of course, the fur collar with its animal odor was attractive to the wolf. If he had that, he would be happy.

She hit David hard with the cane.

David whimpered and backed off.

"Sit! she shouted

David obeyed her.

"Stay!

David curled into a ball and began shaking.

Julia raised the cane again, ashamed to realize her pleasure in hitting that whimpering creature.

A tremor ran through David. The hair receded into flesh, the paws became hands again...

"Feel better now?" She asked him when he finished changing back.

"What happened? I changed, didn't I?"

"Seems we got close to what the problem is."

David shook his head. "I don't want to do this anymore."

* * *

Barnabas walked into the cemetery. He wondered what the point of it was It was only an empty gesture...

Why the string? What sense did it make?

Was he beneath hatred, beneath even contempt for Woodard?"

He heard a small weeping sound behind him, to his left.

"Oh, Buffy, I am so sorry. I didn't know what the children would do."

Barnabas found himself at Tammy's side.

"What's wrong" he asked her gently.

"I killed Buffy."

"Kira killed her."

"She trusted me."

"Buffy would not want you to blame yourself."

Tammy shook her head unconvinced.

"Come with me, it is cold in here."

"Leave me."

"It is not use staying here."

"I owe it to her."

"You are going to catch pneumonia, and she wouldn't want that."

"Maybe she does."

"She doesn't. She knows already how sorry you are."

As he took her away, he wondered if he could apply the same words to himself. But no. His guilt was more clearly defined. It had been murder, even if he took the temporary insanity defense.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Barnabas handed Tammy some hot coffee.

"I know that it tastes lousy, but still, it is hot." he said apologetically.

Tammy drank it, still whimpering.

"For how long have you been doing this? Going to the cemetery to weep over Buffy grave?"

"Several days."

"Does Joe know of this?"

"No. He keeps repeating that it isn't my fault."

"You shouldn't punish yourself this way. Buffy would not want it."

Tammy shook her head, unconvinced.

"It solves nothing" his face darkened, remembering his own useless trips to another grave in the same cemetery. "Yet, it also seemed the only thing you could do."

"I owe it to her. I want her to...to know."

"That you are not enjoying yourself?" he sighed, and continued in a dreamy voice "It is so unfair, isn't it Tammy? When people die and there is no way that we can make it up to them..."

"They cut her to pieces. The children..."

At least Tammy had the consolation that she hadn't done the killing herself...At least he had the consolation that Dave's death had been quick and painless...

"Poor Tammy...it is so unfair."

"It was unfair to Buffy."

"You can't keep on this way."

"I have to."

"If Buffy herself were to tell you to stop."

"But how?"

"It could be arranged."

* * *

"Seems that they nearly caught the dog that is doing all that cattle killing"

"Really?" Chris tried to simulate interest.

"It escaped."

"Too bad." Chris turned to throw more feed to his chickens.

"It hasn't been around your coop." the sheriff said pointedly.

"Maybe the wolf smell drives it away."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"I don't like what you are insinuating, sheriff."

"I don't like the situation. Everyone in the area seems to have been taking losses. Except you. All of them have been keeping a lookout for the dog. Except you. And you can turn yourself into a wolf."

"That fiasco with Pearce did not teach you anything, then?" Chris said nastily.

"Don't play games, Chris. I checked the men whose farms were raided first. They all were part of the riot."

"Maybe even the ones who did _that _ to Amy. But they cannot be prosecuted. My sister cannot get justice. But let one of their damn chickens turn up missing and you are ready to frame me."

* * *

"You must bring her now" Julia said into the phone receiver.

"I can hold her a little longer with pills."

"You shouldn't delay. It if is as serious as you say..."

"I want her to have a legitimate excuse for her to be there. It has to be the opening of the Davenport Center"

"You could make a plausible excuse for her to come earlier. It is her hometown, after all."

"You should get all your material ready for when we get there."

* * *

He wouldn't arrange a séance for Tammy. It frightened him.

Because Buffy might not show up alone.

If Woodard were to appear, if he were to say what he thought of him... He knew that the string was the measure of his contempt. He could not stand being despised so... and there were things he was afraid to hear...

So absorbed was he that he didn't hear when Phillip admitted David in. Only when he saw him did he react.

"You look terrible" he said, without thinking.

Indeed, David looked as if he hadn't slept for several days.

"I know. Will you please get Julia off my back?"

Barnabas looked severe "I understand that you interrupted your treatment."

"I had to."

"Why?"

"Didn't she tell you what happened at the last session?"

"No. What happened?"

"I changed into a wolf in the middle of it. She had to beat me with your cane to make me change back."

Barnabas remembered the hunch that had made him leave the cane behind "just in case". He had felt a bit foolish then. But he had been right about it.

"Don't you understand? Up to now I change only when the moon was full. What if I start changing at the drop of a hat?"

"You also change when you go through cold turkey."

"That is over... Barnabas, if is just the full moon, I can handle it. I can get into the cage and that's it. But changing like that, without warning...

The reproof that it was for his own good died in Barnabas' lips. Suppose that in spite of her good intentions, Julia did not succeed. Suppose she made the situation worse. Something very much like that had happened to him.

"I understand" he said to David.

"You do?" David let out a sigh of relief before he sat down "Will you talk to her?"

"I will ask her to change her methods, and don't risk making the situation worse. If I can get her to promise not to put you in such a position again, will you go back to her?

"If I can trust her, I will go back."

* * *

Julia rubbed her eyes wearily. Kenneth would be impatient by now. She had to go home...

But she couldn't go home like this, all shook up from listening to Kira's tape.

She could see how it affected her. Those tapes were designed to exploit all the hidden angers and resentments of those who heard them, until they were ready to kill on command.

And she was angry at Kenneth now. The way he had behaved towards her for going to Sister Kira...

But it was not only Kenneth that she hated now.

* * *

Tammy was silent on the trip towards the Indian reservation. If Barnabas was right, she would talk to Buffy, beg her forgiveness. She didn't know if she wanted it or feared it.

Old Munsungan was waiting for them, looking as wise and formidable as he had been when he had ten archers to carry out his commands.

Barnabas led Tammy towards him and gently made her kneel on the ground.

"Is she the one you want me to do this for?"

"Yes"

"Do you want to go down on your knees, too?"

"No, not yet."

"You will be here by yourself, soon."

Barnabas shook his head. 'No" then added miserably "I am too afraid."

"You will be here."

Barnabas stepped back, watched how Munsungan's hand descended over Tammy's forehead. Saw her eyes close, her face change.

Shame and guilt were in Tammy's face. The pain there was too much for Barnabas, Instinctively he closed his eyes.

He opened them again and the pain was gone. Tammy's face was peaceful now, even smiling..

She had Buffy's forgiveness at last.

.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Amy smiled at Chris. If only he would unbend, try to act normal.

"I missed you." she wrote on her pad.

Chris took the pad. It always hurt him to have to read it, to be reminded that she could not speak.

But he had to pretend to be cheerful.

"I missed you too."

Julia had told him that Amy needed some sort of physical reassurance. Awkwardly, he took her in his arms and squeezed her lightly.

Amy made a sound low in her throat. The closest she came these days to talking...

"You all right?" he tried to sound casual.

Amy nodded.

He ran his hand through her hair. "Amy...Amy..." he said.

She put her head against his chest, he embraced her.

He pushed back her hair that was falling over her face.

And there he saw, on the exposed net, the twin scars that he knew so well.

Barnabas had dared! With her being so sick!

* * *

Barnabas placed his hands on Eileen's temples. He held her eyes as he made her lie down on the couch.

"Make her understand that she can trust us." Julia said.

Barnabas had the makings of a good therapist. Maybe it was his hypnotic powers, maybe it was his natural empathy - reinforced by the mental bond that the taking of blood created. She wondered why it had taken her so long to recognize it.

But then there was another side of Barnabas - she gritted her teeth - that side wasn't loving at all. He was cruel, brutal...

She controlled herself. That was just the garbage that came off Kira's tape.

The worst that she could reproach Barnabas with was his penchant for B.F. Skinner (She had told Kenneth what she thought of his bringing in the books). But at least now he checked with her first.

The worst? No, she knew what was the worst he had done to her...

On the cot, Eileen was now completely relaxed.

"Tell her to go back in time."

The door slammed open and Chris barged in,.

"I couldn't keep him out" the nurse apologized.

"What did you do to Amy? Chris shouted to Barnabas.

"Don't you see that we are busy?" Julia snapped.

"You keep out of this. I have something to settle with Barnabas."

"Chris" Barnabas said mildly "can't you wait? I _am _busy..."

"Are you going to answer me?"

"All right." Barnabas released Eileen "let's go out, then."

"You can't" Julia said. "I will call an orderly."

"Julia" Barnabas was amused "you can't throw out a werewolf. Just let me handle it."

Barnabas steered Chris into the visitor's lounge, now deserted, wondering when Chris would completely lose control.

"What is wrong?" he said mildly, trying to calm Chris.

"I found fang marks on Amy's neck."

"She hasn't been harmed by it."

"You don't care that she is still sick?"

"Chris, you must realize..."

"That you are finishing the job you started last winter? She was sick then, too. And I broke your collarbone for it."

"It isn't like that at all."

"I don't care how it is. Keep away from her."

* * *

"Just think of it. You are going to see all of them." Sabrina said cheerfully to Maggie.

"See them" Maggie replied somnambulistic ally "See Barnabas..."

Barnabas was waiting for them at Collinsport.

"Maggie?" Sabrina was worried "are you all right?"

Maggie shook, then spoke again in a normal tone. "Yes. I think I'll like seeing them again."

Maggie was looking terrible. Maybe it was the pills, Maybe it was her nightmares.

If Julia didn't have the answer for her, then it was all over.

* * *

"Didn't you try to explain to Chris the situation?"

'He didn't want to listen. Just warned me not to touch Amy."

"Then don't"

"For God's sake Julia, if I stop she will feel rejected again. It is bad enough how Chris acts around her."

"Can you just hug her and nothing else?"

"I can, but she might not accept it. It might only be a few drops, but I have to do it."

"She is too dependent on you."

"You make Chris act like a human being towards her, and I'll stop."

"That makes it more difficult, you now. How can we get Chris to agree to let Amy stay with you when she is released?"

"At worst we can send her over to Frances Jackson. The one thing for sure, is that I think she should not stay with Chris."

"I am worried about Chris." Julia admitted.

"He's worrying me too. I wish I could reach him."

"You remember Tom?"

"Only too well."

"Chris told me something about him a while ago."

"What did he tell you?"

"Enough that I am willing to diagnose him as a dangerous psychotic. Chris is sure that he had killed at least one person by the time Angelique got to him. The way he described it, it was lucky for her that she had fangs when he met her."

Barnabas thought about it, trying to bring back his own memories of Tom. There had been something unsettling about him,...but..."

"I don't know why Tom was afflicted while Chris was spared. But I know that the way Chris looked reminded me of Tom."

"If that is so, the more reason for Amy not to stay with him."

* * *

Chris wandered aimlessly in the cemetery. Anger at Barnabas, at the sheriff, at everyone, filled him.

"Sure I get a sheep here, a few chickens there...but it is not enough."

"Human flesh tastes so much sweeter."

Huh? Had anyone talked to him?

"You never tried that, Chris, you were too much of a coward."

Was somebody actually talking?

"So what did your chains, your self restraint, and the rest of it ever do for you? What good did it to listen to Julia Hoffman? There is only one thing to do with Julia Hoffman."

"Right!" Chris said with clenched teeth. Julia had let Barnabas go on preying on Amy.

He realized then where he was. "Why the cemetery?" he asked himself.

He realized that the cemetery was the last place Tom had been seen before he vanished.

And what had happened to Tom? No one would tell him anything. No more than anyone would tell who had attacked Amy.

"First my brother, then my sister" he said aloud "but that's not enough for them"

"It shouldn't be that way."

"Right!"

"It was here that I came. But she isn't here anymore"

"She?"

"Very blonde, very beautiful, and with some strange habits. I had come to her seeking something else, like that other girl, but she was quicker."

"What?"

"I wanted to know how it felt to kill when you are not a wolf. I tried to strangle her. But she showed me a different way. And it was more fun."

"Tom!" Chris stared at his twin, now appearing in front of him.

"Hello, Chris." Tom laughed. "Still doing the Goody-two-shoes bit?"

"Tom" Chris moved towards him. "is that you? What happened to you?"

"Why do you care? You had thrown me out."

"You had hurt Amy, nearly killed her..."

"The brat needed a whipping to teach her not to snoop. And anyway, how much better off is she now? No Chris, my way is better, much better."

"It isn't"

"Is that why you kill sheep? You never had much imagination. Killing sheep when there are so many people around. Kids that stay up late, Old people... young girls." Tom added dreamily "They are the best"

"It isn't the same thing!" Chris protested.

"It doesn't matter. Since you don't know how to use your body, I'll take it over."

The mad light Chris knew too well came into Tom's eyes.

"No, Tom, don't" he tried to move away from his ghostly twin.

"It is too late brother."

"Tom wait!" Chris knew that he should run. But he couldn't" Tom was his brother and he still loved him. Still he couldn't believe how badly the sickness had twisted him. Still could not understand how dangerous Tom could e...

Tom floated towards him, like a mist. The mist clouded his eyes and suffocated him. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think...

...Tom got up from the ground and stretched the body he had just acquired. He smiled. Chris had kept the body in good physical shape.

And now he would make excellent use of it.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Are you all right?" Angelique asked Chris.

"Of course, I am." Tom tried to shrug her off.

"I don't know. You look strange."

"Strange, what do you mean, strange? Amy still hasn't spoken a word and I am supposed to look fine?"

"I am sorry, Chris, I shouldn't have..."

"Hell, you all came back and are now making money, so everything should be peachy keen, eh?"

Angelique muttered an apology and moved away.

"Chris is being touchy lately, isn't he?" Tammy said to Joe.

"He has reason to be that way. But I wish he snapped out of it."

...Angelique was dangerous, Tom thought , she remembered Tom Jennings only too well. If she recognized him.

And better get rid of Barnabas. and Julia. What about Joe? Better add him to the list.

Everyone who remembered Tom and could tell him apart form Chris should die.

* * *

"The point is that David had a very bad reaction and he wants to make sure it won't repeat itself." Barnabas insisted.

"I got too close to the root of his problem and that scares him.

"At least you agree that he is scared. What were you asking? How he got involved with drugs?"

"Did he tell you that?"

"Yes. Is it true?"

"It is important that we get to the root of it."

"You agreed to treat him for lycanthropy."

"The two of them cannot be treated separately. And I think that my job would be easier if you had not put a roadblock there."

"What kind of a roadblock?"

"Each time I ask him about drugs, he just moans that he can't and grabs his wrist. Just where you bit him. If it wasn't for that, we'd have gotten somewhere by now."

"If it wasn't for that he'd have raided your cabinet and sold what he couldn't shoot."

Julia stared at him angrily.

"You and I know that a doctor's cabinet is the source of many highs."

Not just highs, Julia thought angrily, sometimes worse. But you didn't precisely raid it. No, that would have been too considerate. You made me give it to you...

"Julia!" Barnabas was surprised by her silence.

Julia tried to come back to the present, to find again the thread of conversation... Kira's tapes, they were getting to her...

But her anger would not go away.

"Julia, just treat him for lycanthropy. I will keep him off drugs."

"Treating him for lycanthropy alone is only half the job."

"You do your half, and I'll do mine."

How generous of him!

"Unless I can unlock the secret in his mind he will never have a chance for a normal life."

"He'll have a better chance than he has now, and that can be enough."

"Is that all you can offer him? Keep him on a leash for the rest of his life?" As he had kept her on a string... "do you call that a normal life?"

"No. Not normal. But still a happy and useful one,"

"You are just giving him a crutch."

"I admit it. But do you know what a crutch is? The difference between lying helpless, feeling sorry for yourself, and being able to go places and do things."

"He could do better."

"He could do worse.,"

Yes, much worse, Julia thought bitterly. He could have been killed by you. Or shipped by Roger to a mental institution because you framed him.

She tried to control herself. She knew that it was the effect of Kira's tapes, but that knowledge did not help her.

"How much of a guarantee of success does he have your way?"

"A very good one."

"How good?"

"Over sixty percent"

"And if something goes wrong, if he gets worse...no, Julia, he has every right to refuse that kind of treatment."

"He hasn't"

"Do you realize what your are doing? It is like denying insulin to a diabetic because you might come up with a real cure. You might. But in the meantime he needs his shots."

Julia shook her head, slowly. "I will treat him on my terms, with no interference from you."

She spoke slowly, her eyes downcast, so that he would not see the hatred there.

"Julia"

"That is my final word. I don't want to hear any more of it."

* * *

Tom sat in the park, enjoying the rare sunshine that came this time of the year.

Collinsport had changed since he had seen it last, but it didn't look strange. He understood why it was so. It was Chris' memories. He could tap those so as not to give himself away.

Amy would have to go, tool. After all, she had always been an obnoxious kid. Whining and running to Chris. Probably carrying tales. I would have dealt with her then if...

If he hadn't met Angelique first.

In a way, she had done him a favor. Whatever fun he had when the moon was full, he forgot most of it afterwards. But her way...her way was more fun. The screams, the fear, the futile attempts of his victims to escape... the way he felt when they finally understood how helpless they were.

That's when they saw her, going into the Davenport Center.

He could sense the warmth of her body from where he was. She smelled nice...flawless skin...

He shook. It wouldn't take much to tear out that skin, to bare the muscles...Sever an artery and feel the blood spurting out. Break the bones, chew the greasy marrow between his teeth...

The hair on the back of his head stood. Not here, not where people could see.

But he would have her.

* * *

Maggie did look pale, Sabrina thought, well, I will put out that she is coming down with the flu... everyone is, anyway.

Of course, it was something much worse that the flu, it was her mind, drowning in Kira's words.

She had to make it to Wyncliffe soon. Even sleeping pills were not enough.

For how long could she keep the pretense that this was merely a trip to open the Davenport Center? There would be reporters, and interviews, and...

."Barnabas" Maggie said with hatred.

Sabrina shuddered. If there had been a reporter in the car..

...If it was too late for Julia to try to help...

She missed Gladys. Roxanne had already taken care of her and she had forgotten all that she was supposed to forget.. So she could not count on her anymore.

Now it was all up to her. And Julia Hoffman.

She wished that the trip was over, that she didn't have so many hours ahead driving and wondering whether Maggie would crack before she got there.

Maggie lifted her head, her eyes becoming clearer.

"Do you want me to drive?"

"No. I am all right."

She was tired. But she couldn't afford to let Maggie drive. Not in her state.

She should have listened to Roxanne. She should have taken Maggie to Julia long before this.

* * *

Her name was Sandy Miller.

...that firm body, that pink skin...he needed to rip it open. He needed it so much that it hurt...

But he had to be careful.

Careful! It was too much. It meant waiting, being patient...

He had gone out hunting to get rid of some of his need, but a hare was no substitute for such a beautiful prey as Sandy.

...How he would love to have her in his power...and he had had that girl in the green blouse. As he would have had Angelique...

Hold her, hear her scream, get the last drop of hear out of her before he killed her...

A knock at the door interrupted his reverie.

It was Derek Pearce.

"So you are back" Pearce said "I was here earlier, but you were out."

"I was having some exercise." Tom muttered. Instinct told him to be careful with Pearce. That character saw a money angle to everything, and acted on it.

"I figured it was so." Pearce sat down not waiting for permission.

"Why did you want to see me?"

"I heard that the sheriff was framing you."

"So?" Tom realized what it was. The sheriff suspected Chris of the cattle killings.

"He did the same thing to me, because of Roger. He even put me in house arrest. I hadn't been tried, much less convicted, yet he did it."

Tom shrugged.

"I wanted to sue him for false arrest."

"But you didn't obviously."

"I need more corroborating evidence."

"Meaning?"

"I need you to back me up. After all, it is in your interest, too."

Damn it! How could he have forgotten the sheriff? He already had suspicions of Chris. What would happen when Sandy disappeared.?

But he couldn't give up Sandy.

He'd better. He had no other twin brothers. No other available bodies to possess. Specially bodies with the wolf in them.

"Well, are you going to join forces with me?" Derek insisted..

Tom shook his head.

"Why not?"

Tom stared at Derek. The obnoxious twerp! Somebody ought to fix him!

But tearing his throat would not help. Not with Derek's kind.

"Because" he forced himself to be calm "somewhere along the line you'd find a way to relieve me of my money."

"I wouldn't!"

"That's how you make your living, isn't it?"

Derek huffed a while before he left.

Alone again, Tom paced the floor. Sandy would have to wait. Had to let the suspicions die down. Wait until the killings were forgotten or some stray dog shot for them.

He considered killing the sheriff instead. Attractive. Attractive, but dangerous.

He couldn't afford to have Chris' body killed. It was that simple.

Barnabas and Julia would have to wait. He would have to be Chris Jennings, the goody-two-shoes Chris Jennings for a while yet.

They would learn that the was Tom Jennings, of course, before he killed them.

But until then...

Until then, better patch up his relationship with Barnabas and Julia. And find a way to are without giving way to suspicion to Julia's idea of releasing Amy to Barnabas' care. Get the brat out of his way.

As for Sandy...

He would bring her out to the woods. As he had done with that other girl" he licked his lips remembering that night, when he had untied her and let her run ahead for a while, until the moon rose...

He had caught her, of course, but he didn't remember that...

But Sandy, he would remember.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider going to Reverend Trask's meeting?"

Barnabas shook his head "I would feel uncomfortable around him. Specially the way he looks at me."

"What's wrong witht the way he looks at your?"

"Like...like I could do no wrong. It disturbs me. Specailly since I can make a list of the things I did wrong and..."

Julia looked down to hide the anger in her eyes. Barnabas sure looked modest, didn't he? And saintly too. It was such a beautiful act of his.

But she would show him for what he really was. She and Maggie.

She checked her watch. She couldn't keep Barnabas with her making small talk for much longer. And Barnabas had to be there when Maggie came.

The headlights of the car approaching reached them.

"I wonder who would be coming at this hour." Barnabas wondered aloud.

"Oh, that's Maggie." Julia said as calmly as she could.

"Maggie?"

"Yes. She said she was coming over here."

Maggie...the last time he had seen it had been last winter... When memories he wished he didn't have had come back to him.

And now he would have to face her again, with what he knew...

Sabrina led Maggie in.

Maggie looked so sick, so pale... As sick and pale as she had looked when he had been through with her in 1967.

"It was a long ride, but we made it." Sabrina said. She looked curiously towards Barnabas. Did Julia confide in him that much? She certainly wouldn't.

"Hello, Maggie" Julia said, with what calm remained in her. "have you seen Barnabas?"

Maggie lifted her head and stared in the direction that Julia pointed.

Her eyes were dead, Barnabas realized with shock. Then they eyes changed.

"Maggie?" he said tentatively.

Maggie took a step forward, her face contorted with hatred.

"Murderer!" she screamed.

She fell on him, kicking, spitting, and clawing him. She dug her heels into his shins, caught his nose between her teeth and twisted it.

He reeled from the attack and tried to grab her.

The nails that raked his cheeks moved closer to his eyes.

Then she went limp.

"My God, she's freaked out." Sabrina said while checking that her karate blow had not done serious harm. "you okay?"

"Yes. _he _'s okay" Julia said venomously "she is a mess, but he is okay. And why do you think that she is a mess? Because he once played a funny game with her. He pretended that she was Josette, and when she wouldn't go along with him, he just drove her mad."

Barnabas stared at Julia, stunned.

"Oh, Kira helped, I grant you. But he planted the seeds. And he would just as well killed her. She had the mind of a five year old child when I saw her first. But that's not all. I lost count of how many times the put his hands on my throat, trying to strangle me, until I talked him out of it."

"Julia..." Barnabas managed to say.

"Of course, he does not want to talk about it. Did he ever tell you how he asked me to kill Willie in the hospital? And what about Dave? You killed him, and made me give you the poison for it. He knew it was me who had prepared it. He rejected me before he died."

She walked towards Barnabas slowly, her eyes blazing.

"It hurts to remember, doesn't it, scum?" she hissed at him. "it would be so much easier if nobody ever spoke of it."

She spat on his face.

Barnabas stood numbed, without even the will to wipe the spittle away.

Julia licked her lips, ready to speak the next barb.

Which she never uttered, since Sabrina felled her with another karate blow.

"Oh, Lord, what a mess" Sabrina said to no one in particular. "As they say, psychiatrists catch it from their patients."

"She is right" Barnabas managed to say.

"What is it to me?" Sabrina shrugged "I came here because Maggie's in trouble, not because I want to witness your spats."

Barnabas stood immobile while Sabrina laid Maggie on the sofa.

"Since you are not going to be much help around here, would you mind going out? I want a few words with Julia, in private."

* * *

Barnabas paced in the garden...Maggie had remembered. The thought filled him, made him want to run away, never to be seen again anymore...

And Julia had rejected him.

Her spit burned like acid on his skin. That she would hate him so.. that one day she would look at him that way...

"You ordered me to kill Willie when he was in the hospital..."

Had he been willing to do that? To kill Willie?

He remembered his own words then. Every one of them...

What kind of beast could do those things?

He didn't deserve anything of what he had. he didn't deserve anyone's friendship, anyone's love...

Was madness a good enough excuse? Could it ever be?

...Maggie...Maggie...her eyes blank, singing 'London Bridge' over and over...

...Willie, his face frozen in fear, whimpering before the cane hit him...

'...Julia in pain, shaken by the enormity of the crime he had forced her to commit. And he still tormented her...

He bit his knuckles, as if by inflicting pain on himself somehow made things better.

But it wasn't enough. As Maggie's fingernails digging into his flesh weren't enough...

Dry sobs broke in his throat, but he could not bend down to cry. It was as if a straight rod of iron had been driven through his spine, forcing him to remain erect...

* * *

"Well, Julia, this is a pretty mess, isn't it? I bring Maggie here for treatment and what do I get? Included in some sort of group therapy? That's the most charitable explanation I can find.

"You do not understand."

"I am not interested in finding out what kinds of problems you have or don't have with your staff. I am not interested in your personal problems, either. If you forgive me, I find your behavior today highly unprofessional."

Julia bent down her head.

"Kira's tapes" she managed to say.

Sabrina cocked her head. "You mean they got to you?"

"They would get to anyone."

"Yes." Sabrina agreed "you told me something of it, when you started."

"It exploits all your buried anger and resentments until you are ready to kill."

Sabrina paced. "Well, what do we do now? Do you think that you could treat her, in the shape your are in?"

"No: Julia swallowed "I cannot. But Barnabas might."

"If you haven't shocked him into uselessness, that is."

* * *

Maggie was lying comfortably while Julia sat at her desk, looking down on her papers, to avoid looking at him when he went in, called by Sabrina.

"You remember Kira?" Sabrina asked him.

"Yes.. but.."

"She is one's of Kira's killers." she pointed at the unconscious Maggie "she's already killed one man in the Longworth Building, and would have gone on killing if I hadn't stopped Kira."

"But..."

"You might have planted the seeds, but if it had not been you, Kira would have found something else to exploit. She was a professional mind bender. There were plenty of other angers and resentments for her to exploit. She might have ended killing her father over and over, instead of you."

He turned to Julia "Is that true?"

Julia nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"And ..."

"And now she needs help. Yours."

"It cannot be Julia. She listened to Kira's tapes for too long and they got to her. No, you are Maggie's only chance now."

"But I...I cannot."

"She needs you are the only one who can help her."

"She hates me."

"You have to face up to her and break through."

"She has every right to hate me.."

"It is you or nobody. After that unprofessional behavior of Julia, she can't do it."

"Julia was right..."

"I am the doctor, and I say that I am too affected by the material I studied to be able to make a rational decision." Julia said slowly "I hope that you don't start contesting my decisions."

"If you don't do something, she will kill somebody. Do you know what she was getting ready for when we came? Sniping. Right! Get up on a roof with a gun and start shooting anything that moves.

Barnabas looked at Maggie.

...One of Kira's killers.

He moved closer to her.

""Oh, Maggie, what happened to you?"

A sniper. A Pavlov dog, like the children. Buffy Duncan... Joseph Lilley..

"Who did she kill?"

"A lobbyist called Drew Harrison."

There was a snarl growing in Maggie's throat."

"No, Maggie. I will not let Kira destroy you."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

There was raw hatred in Maggie's eyes. He barely could look at them.

Yet he had to. For Maggie's sake, if not for his.

"I want to help you" he repeated. He refused to think of what his words meant. He had no right to regrets, not to self-doubts. He had to make Maggie well again.

"You!" Maggie spat, some saliva bubbles forming at the corner of her mouth.

"You need help, Maggie."

She growled and fought against the restraints.

"I know what your help means."

"I only want what's best for you."

She laughed, harshly "What is my name?"

"Maggie Evans. U.S. Representative Margaret Evans."

"Not Josette Collins?"

"No" Do not think about it. he said to himself. It is about her, not you.

"You would have killed me for not saying it."

"You are Maggie Evans. There is no one like Maggie Evans, and that's how it should be."

His job was not to think nor to remember. His job was to make Maggie understand that she was among friends that she could trust. He took her head and stared into her eyes. Not forcing, just let her know that there was help and support there, if she needed it.

"You lie! You want me to be Josette Collins!"

"I only want to help you, Maggie."

* * *

"Do you think that it will work? Sabrina paced nervously.

"It'd better. We have nothing else."

"Do you think that he can do it? You shook him rather bad."

"He would not have faced it for himself. But he can do it for her sake."

She was again in control of herself, and she only felt shame for having fallen victim to Kira's techniques.

"You treated the kids."

"It was done almost immediately and it wasn't such a thorough job of exploiting hidden anger and resentments. It was a game for them... You waited too long to bring her here."

"You were the ones who wanted to study the tapes."

"You gambled that you could save her political career along with her sanity. Now Barnabas is the only one who cam make your gamble pay off."

* * *

...She was again in the staircase of the Longworth Building, waiting for Barnabas...and he was stalking her too...

...And he was looking down on her, so gently...

...He was dragging her to shut her in his coffin for hours...

...And he called her Maggie Evans and wiped her forehead...

...She was in the dark, in that cell, with only the memory of his angry expression for company...

...And she was in a lighted office, and he acted as if he wanted to comfort her, as if he really cared for her...

"Which one of you is the real one?" she asked.

* * *

"Isn't that too long?" Sabrina looked at her watch.

"From the size of the problem, I'd say no. At least she does not scream anymore."

"I wish I knew what was happening."

"He's doing his best."

"It might not be enough."

"Do you want to sleep? It is late."

"No. I intend to be here when he comes out with the news."

* * *

"Maggie" he repeated gently.

Maggie had stopped screaming, but still looked at him with hatred in his eyes.

"I will never forgive you for what you did."

"I understand."

"Yes. You understand a lot. Am I Maggie Evans, really."

'Yes. You are Maggie Evans. You cannot be anyone else."

"You don't believe it."

"I want to help you."

"I want to kill you. I tried once but I failed. I will have to try again."

"It wasn't me you killed. It was Drew Harrison."

"No! It was you. I shot you in the Longworth Building, in the staircase, under the golden eagle."

"I was never in the Longworth Building."

"I shot you there!"

* * *

"Is he going to be there all night?" Sabrina asked impatiently.

"It seems so."

"I wish I knew what he was doing."

"He is doing his best."

"You already told me that. I want to know if he is doing any good."

"He's trying. What more do you want?"

"Results."

* * *

"How could you?" Maggie asked plaintively "how could you do that to me?"

"It was wrong."

"It was evil."

"Yes."

"You were evil. You are still evil"

"It is over, Maggie. It won't happen again, to you nor anyone."

"No. It is still here. Nothing has changed."

"Everything has. This is 1979. And you are an U.S. Representative. One day you'll be a Senator, or get a cabinet post."

"No, that's not real. There is only you and me."

He stroked her forehead. "It isn't true and you know it. I deserve to be hurt. But you are hurting yourself in the process. Try to think, Maggie. Try to remember how it really is."

"You want me to pretend that I am Josette."

"No. I want you to remember that you are rising start in the Democratic Party. That you are competent woman, with much to live for, and much to offer."

She looked down.

"Why am I tied up?"

"You got violent"

"How violent?"

"Maggie, a terrible thing happened to you. You killed a man who did nothing to deserve it. You can hurt many others. I want to help you, but you must stop trying to kill me."

"What are you afraid I'll do if you untie me?

Barnabas considered it. Maggie was calmer than she had been, more in control. Yes, she still wanted to hurt him, but she may not..."

"If I untie you, will you promise not to get violent?"

"I..." she was reluctant to admit anything, not even the extent of the impression his words had made on her.

He decided to gamble.

"I trust you, Maggie." he released the straps. Then he took both her hands and placed them on his cheeks.

"There" he said 'hurt me if you want to. But I trust that you won't"

He forbade himself to think of what her nails could do to his eyes.

Maggie pushed her nails into his cheeks. Not strongly, just enough to convince herself that he was letting her do this.

"Would you really let me hurt you?"

"I hope that you won't" he managed a brave smile. "for your sake as well as mine."

"But if I do?"

"Maybe then you'll stop hurting innocent people because you mistake them for me."

"Did I really kill Drew Harrison?" she wondered "I was so sure it was you..."

"It wasn't your fault. It was this woman, Kira Petofi...she was a professional mind bender, working for the KGB."

"What?"

"Julia can tell you the whole story. I don't know all the details." he said apologetically "I am only staff here, and Julia does not have to tell me everything, only what I need to know."

"I was so sure it was you" she said plaintively 'why couldn't it be?"

"I don't know. But it was someone else."

"Why?"

"I don't know the answer to that one" he helped her to stand. "Do you want to see Julia now?"

"Yes."

Julia still looked alert, thanks to the coffee she had been drinking non-stop, but Sabrina had practically fallen asleep on her feet.

"It seems I need your help again" Maggie said as she came out of the office.

"What about tomorrow? Or would you rather I told you what I know of it now?"

"I'd rather learn of it now."

"Good" Julia indicated Sabrina to Barnabas "you better put her to bed before she falls on the floor."

"I am not asleep!" Sabrina protested

"Come Sabrina" Barnabas steered her away. "They don't need us now."

"You did it?" she asked sleepily.

"I think so."

She relaxed "You are good at what you do" she admitted, while her body went limp.

"It wasn't easy" he admitted "for a while I thought it was all lost."

Sabrina had fallen asleep. He eased her on the nearest couch, took off her shoes, covered her, and adjusted a pillow under her head.

"Sleep well, Sabrina" he said.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Maggie looked critically at her reflection in the mirror.

"I have put some weight" she told Willie "I hope that this dress doesn't burst at the seams."

"Are you sure it is OK?" Willie asked for the umpteenth time.

"Julia says we have to do it."

Willie shook his head "I wonder...I think that all psychiatrists are buggy. They catch it from their patients, if you ask me."

"There is a reason."

"I don't think that is right, what we are doing to him. He has been hurt bad enough already."

"Willie, you were here when it all happened. How can you say that this is too much?"

"It is unnecessary and cruel."

"It might be cruel, but it isn't unnecessary. I won't believe that it is over until...until he sees me in this dress and calls me by my right name."

Willie bit his lip. "For how long have you known?"

"A few years."

"Why didn't you confront him then?"

"I...I couldn't afford it."

"I know" Willie sounded cynical "He was a valuable commodity in your political career. If you got it out in the open you would not be able to manipulate him through guilt anymore."

Maggie shrugged "I figured he owed me something, and I wanted to collect on my terms."

"And now you got in big trouble."

"Kira would have gotten to me even without this." she studied herself. "It is the waist. Women in those days were crippled by corsets that gave them narrow waists. They were uncomfortable as Hell, but that didn't matter as long as they looked pretty, or what they called pretty then... That's why I cannot get into this dress."

"I don't like the idea of hurting him."

"He hurt me, and you too. Surely it isn't much to ask of him to share the load."

"It was over ten years ago. He's been a good friend to me since then. I have no right to do this to him."

"But I have a right."

* * *

Julia's mood was subdued when he saw her again.

"Maggie's gone to Collinsport" she said "Maybe later she will need you for some things, but she'll tell you then."

"Is she going to be all right?"

"Yes." she lifted her head slowly "you did an excellent job with her."

There was a heaviness in Julia's voice, and there were lines on her face.

"Julia, about those things you said..

She interrupted him with a gesture. "I told you, Kira's tapes got to me. It won't happen again."

It was monstrous, Julia's self control. It might kill her inside, yet she would not abandon it.

"No, Julia, I have hurt you..."

"The subject is closed. I behaved unprofessionally and I am lucky that you didn't. You are a good therapist."

"Julia, you have every right to be angry with me. It is all right to be angry."

"I have been thinking of what you said about David." Julia continued as if she hadn't heard Barnabas. "yes, what you are offering him is a crutch, yet it is better than what he has now. Maybe I was too stubborn. There are to many risks to what I was doing. Tell him that I will ask him no more questions about the drugs."

So that was it, her formal apology for her outburst. And a bribe to keep him from asking unwanted questions.

He knew then that he would give in, go on acting as if nothing had happened, and wait for the next explosion, which could come next week, next year, or never.

* * *

He noticed with surprise that there was light in what used to be Josette's room. Was Phillip there now? And why?

Then, as he approached his house, he noticed something else. It was silent. No sounds of Phillip playing the saxophone.

It was Willie who opened the door for him.

"Willie?" he said surprised "Why are you here? And where is Phillip?"

Willie made a valiant effort to look cowed and frightened, but he was not so good an actor, and only managed to look embarrassed.

"She's here" he said.

"Who's she?"

"Upstairs, in her room"

"Willie, what's wrong with you?"

Willie shook his head, trying to keep his distance from Barnabas.

Maggie decided that it was time to make her entrance. She threw the veil over her head and walked slowly down the stairs.

As he heard her approaching the steps Willie looked up, making Barnabas follow his gaze.

...Josette was coming down the stairs...

It couldn't be...she was gone...she had returned his ring in 1970. No one had seen ser since...

Figuring that his role in this masquerade was over, Willie moved away.

From behind her veil Maggie studied Barnabas' face. Astonishment, longing, pain...but the furious passion she had known was gone. Only sadness remained.

She was now in front of him. With a swift movement, she lifted the veil and stared calmly at him.

"Maggie" he said, with both relief and disappointment.

"You recognize me? Even dressed like this?"

Barnabas nodded.

"I am Maggie Evans, then?"

"Yes."

She sighed deeply "Thank you " she said. "Julia said that until I heard you say it, even wearing this dress, I wouldn't be free of it."

"Julia's idea?" he turned to Willie "is that why you acted so crazy?"

"Yes. I was trying to make do as if we were still in 1967."

"And Phillip?"

"Julia told him to go out and have a good time." Willie looked around "If you ask me, he doesn't keep this place in such a good shape as I did."

"Don't tell him that." Barnabas managed to smile "you'll break his heart."

"I won't" Willie looked at the two of them, standing together. "I imagine you two have a lot to talk about. I will leave you now."

* * *

"The only excuse I have for what I did to you was that I was mad. Whether it is good enough..."

"It has to be. I need the same excuse to live with the fact that I killed Drew Harrison."

"You are going to be all right now. I know it."

"I still need a lot of therapy, Julia tells me. But the worst is over. And you did it."

"I am glad I could be of help."

"I know you are." she licked her lips. "about that girl who drowned.. The ones they thought it was me. Did you...?"

"No. I had nothing to do with it."

"I would understand if you had...but I have to know."

"I let you believe I killed her because I knew it would hurt you., but I didn't. I might have been crazy, but I was not so stupid as to think that the sea would return the body at the proper time in the proper stage of decomposition, and with the clothes gone too. No. I just overheard Patterson saying that she had been found, and used that knowledge against you. I was quite a stinker, wasn't I?"

"Yes. you were."

He shook his head. "I still can't believe we are here, talking about it. I still wonder how we managed to survive last night."

"You took quite a beating, didn't you?"

"It was worth it." he took her face in his hands.

"I like you."

"I like you too, Maggie."

"Are you...hungry?"

"A bit" he admitted.

She laid her head gently on his shoulder. "Do it. As Maggie Evans, with no more secrets between us."

"With no secrets?" he caressed her hair. "Knowing full well what each other is?"

"Yes."

He hadn't tasted of her blood in a long time. How long was it? But even then, it hadn't been like this. No pain, no anger, no holding back...he felt her embrace tighten and he responded in kind.

"Maggie..." he said when he was done.

"No more Josette?" she asked, this time mischievously.

"No. I loved her, I love her still. But you are not her. I was a fool to want a second hand Josette when I could have had a first hand Maggie."

"Maybe you still can."

"No, it is too late."

"No, it isn't" she put his hand to her breast "you never saw me naked, did you?"

"No, I didn't"

"Yet I live here all that time."

He could feel her heart beating, could feel her hand sliding under his shirt...

"No, Maggie, this is wrong." he tried to push her away.

"Love me, please." her hands ran over his body, arousing him. "love me for myself."

He opened his mouth to protest again, but her mouth met it, meeting in a hungry open kiss. Her breast were pushing against his chest. Her hands tugged at his belt.

Without being aware of it, he began pulling the dress from her.

* * *

Maggie slept on the rug. Next to her laid Josette's dress, crumpled into a heap.

The seams had begun to burst, he noticed. Maggie had grown and the dress did not fit her anymore.

He caressed her hair. She seemed so peaceful now that they had shared each other's bodies instead of a nightmare.

He was still shaken by the violence of her lovemaking. That was not like any sex he had known before. Not the casual sex that he had known from whores. Not the dutiful one he had received from Priscilla, his first wife, much less the good natured lovemaking he shared with Iris.

Angelique's passionate sex seemed mild compared to this.

He new that he was covered with bruises. She was somewhat bruised herself, since she had no allowed for gentleness.

He knew that his had been a private act of exorcism for her, a desperate need to prove herself free of the past.

And rage. There was still cold rage in her that hadn't yet come out, releasing itself as their bodies interlocked. Rage from her and guilt from him. And her nails kept digging into his flesh out of the need to hurt him still.

It was dangerously close to SM what they two of them had done. But it had to be. It was not game. It was what they needed.

He scooped her up. The worst was past and he could be gentle again. He brushed her hair off her face and kissed her on the cheek.

"You are going to be all right, now. Maggie."


	10. Chapter 10

Kira is dead, and the town is gettiing back to normal. But Chris bitterness has led him to raid his neighbors chicken coops in wolf form, and worse may come. And Maggie's condition worsens. Barnabas has been hired as a therapist by Julia, since as long as he wants to meddle, he should do it under some sort of control.

* * *

TRIAL BY FIRE

Chapter 10

It was quite a party. Xavier footed the bill and he had good reason not to stint on the spending. This was the inaugural party for his center and he wanted have a good start,. Tomorrow the hard work would begin. Tonight, everybody was to have a good time.

But there was no booze. Milk and fruit juices, yes. And all the food was natural and healthy.

"What is this?" Sandy Miller examined the liquid offered to her.

"Carrot juice" Frank answered.

"Carrot juice?"

"It doesn't taste so bad. And I got some booze in a brown bag if you want to spike it."

Barnabas watched Maggie from a distance. Had all that really happened? Was she the same one who had flung herself at him? She certainly didn't look so. The way she was moving around, looking professional, wooing whatever potential voters might be out there...

"Pardon me" somebody said behind him. "are you Ms. Evans campaign manager?"

"Was" he said, turning.

"You quit?"

"And why do you want to know?"

It was an attractive brunette in a pantsuit.

"I am a reporter for 'People' magazine."

He grimaced, "People" magazine was better than "The National Enquirer" but that's all you could say for it.

"And your name?"

"Oriana Falchi."

"The Oriana Fallaci?"

"Falchi F.A.L.C.H.I." she laughed "I get to spell my last name a lot."

He was aware of the beating of her vein against the skin. Watch it, he told himself. She's from out of town, and you know that if you ever touch a tourist the Chamber of Commerce will come after you with a meat cleaver.

And she was a reporter. That could mean extra trouble... although her interest seemed to be mainly on Maggie and would only go after the most superficial story she could find.

"But you were her first campaign manager, weren't you?"

"Yes. I ran her first campaign on a shoestring. Not that I was that good. It was just that we were lucky that the incumbent got caught with a couple of showgirls. Maybe you remember the story."

"I do. And you are no longer her campaign manager?"

"No. For two reasons. One that I was not that good to start with. And second, I needed a job that paid better. Shameful as it may seems, I had trouble living within my budget."

"No disagreements between you two?'

"No. Only financial need of my part."

"And what do you do now?

"Consultant and part time therapist for Dr. Anderson."

"You work both for Dr. Anderson and for Davenport?"

"Dr. Julia Anderson. And yes, I do work for both of them."

"How do you combine the two?"

"It isn't easy."

Harry looked at Xavier from the other end of the room. Both of them knew that there was trouble ahead between the two, but now they enjoyed the truce.

Julia cornered the man she thought to be Chris Jennings.

"You won't regret letting Amy go with Barnabas."

"I understand, Julia."

"Don't feel hurt, please. It is just that this is a difficult time for her and she needs special care."

...Ah, Dr. Hoffman, thought Tom, you didn't sound so high and mighty after I dug my fangs in your throat...

His eyes moved to Angelique, who was talking to Sabrina. Angelique had done him a good turn once. Maybe he would let her live, after all.

But Barnabas and Julia, those two, they would die.

Sabrina looked at him, from afar. She wondered if there was ever a chance of her and Chris getting together again.

Give him time, that was what Barnabas had said. Just how much more time?

David found himself talking to Willie.

"I will be going back for treatments now."

"Julia promised not to give you trouble?" Willie said sympathetically.

"More or less"

It was surprising how easy to was to talk to Willie. He had always thought of him as an oaf, or worse. Suddenly, talking to him was easy.

"Barnabas talked her out of it?"

"Seems so."

Barnabas still couldn't shake Oriana off.

"Is there another reason for this trip by Representative Evans?"

"Don't you think that this center is reason enough? We worked hard for it. And look what it means. Not only an economic revitalization of this area, but also one of many steps towards energy independence. With more and more centers like this we won't belong body and soul to some sheiks at the other end of the globe."

"Was there ever a personal relationship between you and her?"

"We are old friends, and we have grown together fighting for things like this."

"When she came back, she stopped first at Wyncliffe? Was it to see you?"

"It was to see Dr. Julia Hoffman... Anderson. Hoffman is her maiden name. There was a project that they wanted to discuss. and they wanted time and privacy for it."

Oriana bit her lip. There was more to it than he was telling.

* * *

"Well, you finally remembered me." Iris said as he began to undress.

"It was tough, back at Wyncliffe."

"It is always tough, back there. You have to find a way to see me more often than this."

"Why don't you come over to Wyncliffe?"

"I am too busy." he gasped when he took off his shirt. "what happened to you?"

"Happened?"

"You are all bruised."

Barnabas sighed. "Remember what I told you about Maggie? About 1967?"

"Yes."

"We finally slugged it out."

"Slugged out seems the proper term. Is there something else? Did you go to bed with her?

"She needed it. She was too full of anger and she couldn't get it out any other way."

Iris ground her teeth. She knew that he was right. But it still hurt that he had done it with Maggie while she did nothing but wait for him.

"I imagine that it was tough for you" she could not hide the irony in her voice.

"It was. It was brutal. Not only she wouldn't be gentle with me, She wouldn't let me gentle with her... Iris, I need gentleness now... will you be gentle with me?"

* * *

Old Munsungan was there, as he knew he would be.

He was still afraid, but after what he had gone through with Maggie, things could not get worse.

And he had to talk about it. Julia would not listen. Iris did not understand who important this was to him. How could she? She had not lived through it. As for Maggie...with Maggie it would be dangerous to go further. He didn't have the courage for another night like the last.

So this remained. This last chance to make sense out of the senseless.

"You were right." he said to the old man. "I had to come back." he licked his lips. You know what I want, don't you?"

"Yes. Are you willing to do this?"

"As willing as I'll ever be."

Old Munsungan's hand rested on his forehead. Just as he remembered. And just like the last time, the mists closed on him.

"So you finally got around to it."

It was Woodard, with an ironic smile in his lips.

"Control yourself"" Woodard added "I detest cheap sentimentality."

"What can I say to you?"

"Whatever you feel like saying."

"Why...?"

"Why what? I don't think you want to know why not Maine team ever wins the pennant, although that would be a fair question."

"Is there any point to my saving string."

"Apart from making you look ridiculous, no."

"Why did you ask that of me?"

"Would you rather I asked you to audition for the Gong Show?"

"How would that make things better?"

"Ask Chuck Barry that."

"Why, was the point?"

"Would you rather I went for cheap melodramatics?"

"I...just want to know if you hate me..."

"I think that 'being amused' is a better description."

"I ...I see."

Woodard chuckled. "Do you know what I like about you? You have no idea when someone is putting you on. I tell you to save string, and here you are, saving string. If I had told you to go down Niagara Falls in a barrel you'd have done it too. I really should have told you to audition for the Gong Show. You'd look great, singing in a chicken suit."

"I wanted to so something for you."

"But you can't"

"Isn't there anything...?"

"Nothing. Make what you will of it."

"I can't make sense of it! Julia spat on my face and now she acts as if nothing had happened. Maggie and I tear each other apart, and next we are at a party making small talk and laying the groundwork for the next election. As if... as if it was only a bad headache. I can't do that. I can't put this behind me. Not until I can make sense of it."

"You do like living in the past, don't you?"

"No. That's over with."

"Really? Or you just changed the year and it is 1967 that you want to relive over and over until you can put a happy ending to it?"

"I did not wish to relive it. It came upon me. I had no idea of how much I had hurt Julia. And I can't even get her to talk about it. It is going to be eating her inside, and she won't say a word."

"Yes. Julia always had self-control. Too much of it. I once warned her that unless she learned to express her feelings she'd be terribly hurt when her self-control failed her. What I didn't figure was that I would be caught in the middle."

"Can I do anything for her?"

"If you don't mind being hurt in the process."

"It can't be worse than it was with Maggie."

"It is going to be worse. And better at the same time."

"You don't hate her either?"

"I pity her." he paused "what do you really want of me?"

"Your forgiveness."

"If I gave it to you, would you go away and stop bothering me" he chuckled again. "No, you won't. Because you want something else."

"George said that all I could ever do is to be the kind of person that you'd want for a friend."

"And you want to know if you are making the grade?"

"Yes."

"What if my taste in friends could be described, charitably, as peculiar?"

"If things had been different, could you and I have...?"

"You want some advice? Stay out of iffy questions. They are the shortest road to heartbreak. 'Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are "it might have been"'. Why do you wish my friendship on yourself? Can't you see what it's done to Julia?"

"I can't stop from wondering." Barnabas said apologetically.

"I don't see why you shouldn't plug at it, anyway. If nothing else, you may end up being what is called 'a lovely individual'"

"If I ever make the grade, will you let me know?"

"If you ever make the grade you won't need me to tell you."

Then the mists closed on him. There were still questions that he hadn't asked, but now it was too late. His doubts would remain with him a long time yet. The pain would not go away overnight.

But he had something to look forward to.

"You have taken a burden upon yourself" He heard Old Munsungan say.

"Yes. I have." he said, getting up. "Wish me strength to bear it."

"It will be there."

* * *

What will Tom do? Will he resume his previous murderous career using Chris body? What secret is locked inside David's mind that led him to drugs? Will the Davenport Center attract more reporters, and will they find Barnabas noteworthy?

Keep reading...


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